Gas prices going down, but area residents not happy with lag at the pumps

Monday

Oct 27, 2008 at 12:01 AMOct 27, 2008 at 9:21 PM

Gasoline prices have been dropping as talk of a recession grows and Wall Street gets beaten up on a daily basis, but area residents had little positive to say about less pain at the pumps.

Justin Head

Gasoline prices have been dropping as talk of a recession grows and Wall Street gets beaten up on a daily basis, but area residents had little positive to say about less pain at the pumps.

Maybe it’s due to prices being higher here than the national average or maybe it’s because New York is one of only six states in the country where an average gallon of regular gasoline fetches more than three dollars (according to the Daily Fuel Gauge Report from motorist advocacy group AAA), but people just weren’t impressed by the decreases.

“It always goes up faster than it goes down, they never give us a break,” said Dave Gardiner of Canisteo. He wants to know why he has a friend in Pennsylvania that pays $2.85 a gallon right now.

“We are not that far from him. I want an answer to that question.”

The cost of gasoline at the State Line gas station in Genesee, Pa., is $2.89 a gallon of regular, which is even further away from Hornell than an area like Henrietta, outside of Rochester, where lines of cars are common at a Fastrac where motorists fill up to the tune of $2.73 a gallon of regular gasoline as of Sunday.

Hornell area gas stations all seemed to be hovering around $3.15 a gallon of regular, give or take a drop of a few cents. Canisteo, Canaseraga and Arkport all fell into this area. Bath gas stations were in the $3.09 range. On the other hand, the Arrow Mart on State Route 244 in Alfred is selling a gallon of regular for $3.25, with the exception of a gas sale today in which five cents will be taken off for every gallon purchased.

Just last week a gallon of regular was being sold for $3.39 at Hornell area gas stations.
A national survey shows gas prices continue to decline, falling nearly 53 cents a gallon in the last two weeks.

The average price of a gallon of regular gasoline at self-serve stations was $2.78 Friday. Mid-grade was at $2.93 and premium was at $3.05. That’s according to the Lundberg Survey of 5,000 gas stations nationwide, released Sunday.

Gas was cheapest in Wichita, Kan., at $2.26 for a gallon of regular. It was most expensive in Anchorage, Aka., at $3.50.

According to the Energy Department, gasoline consumption for the last four weeks averaged 8.8 million barrels a day, or 4.3 percent lower than during the same period studied last year.

Last week, gasoline demand dropped 6.4 percent compared to the same week a year ago, according to a MasterCard survey of credit card swipes. It was the 26th consecutive week in which gasoline consumption had declined from statistics a year ago.

Either consumers are just travelling less or a recession is at our doorstep; in any event the price dives are not bringing many smiles.

“It always comes down a lot slower than it goes up, that’s the way they always do it,” said Andy Murphy of Canisteo.

Murphy said he was in Georgia this summer when gas was at its highest prices and they were limiting how much could be purchased.

“It got a little hairy there, in some places you could only buy $30 or $40 dollars of gas at a time,” said Murphy, adding, “ But I have lived through World War II and I know what gas rationing amounted to then — we are spoiled.”

Janis Speed has commuted from Canisteo to Rochester daily for the last 11 years. She works as a typist at the Rochester Psychiatric Center. Speed is happy about the prices dropping, but wants to see the prices go down further.

“I drive 162 miles a day and I can barely keep up with prices the way they are. It’s killing me because I don’t make that much money,” said Speed.

She considered quitting her job when a gallon of regular was more than $4, but now she is able to hang on to it.

Some people are happier than others about the drop even if gas prices are coming down a lot slower than they went up.

“I’m quite pleased with the drop in gas prices, but I’d like to see heating oil do the same thing, I paid about $4 a gallon to fill up my tank last week,” said Clear Lewis of Jasper.

Falling demand for gas has driven oil prices down more than 50 percent since they plateaued to a record high of $147.27 a barrel in July. Oil accounts for half of the price of gasoline. The cost of a barrel of oil is down 50 percent over the last few months as investors worry a recession is on the fringe and would lesson the demand for energy products.